Finally, some photos from half-term

The boys went on a trip to Copenhagen to somewhere that actually had more lego than our house, LegoWorld!

It was quite expensive but they did enjoy it and S and his friend won a building competition which got them 2 free tickets to Legoland (only thing is it'll cost us a lot to get there plus accomodation, and other kids tickets...)

I would have posted a few more pics but DH has done something to the computer as it was working very slowly. Now I'm not sure where all my saved stuff is, maybe on a memory stick Biryani was playing with earlier ?!. So there may be some more pictures later, maybe not.

Other activities they managed to do as DH is home: squash, bowling, indoor play place, visit to a friend's grandfather's big house in a village, crafty things with wool. Finally we got the snow most UK residents will be sick of, and so they were able to do quite a bit of sledging. It's almost completely gone now, and I was puzzled to find random pieces of carrot throughout our locality, then,*lightbulb*, snowmen noses!

A few recent photos

Biryani on her little bed, with one of her favourite toys (long since deceased)

Examples of Biryani's drawings

and a painting H did at nursery, it's Sonic and Shadow the hedgehog by the way.

It’s amazing that anything has been done

Alhamdulillah, things have been a bit slow round here recently, with everyone having their turn at being ill. First was H, then M had a day off school (first time this academic year I think), Hz, us adults, Biryani (who had a fever the other night) and finally S has had a day off today with a sore throat. Most of us are still in the final snuffles, but combined with Hz's frequent night waking my brain is again imitating cotton wool and temper is hard to control, Alhamdulillah. The health food shop had run out of vitamin syrup and I am trying not to worry about Biryani's unusual and miniscule diet. So far today it has been 1 Weetabix, crisps(it's Jummah!), a small amount of pomegranate, a spoon of another cereal, one bite of some toast dipped in an egg..

A little bit of recent Home Education:

S does ask me to test him on his current Surah for school.

Talked about the difference between Great Britain, UK, England, Scotland etc as it had come up on an English test. Admittedly I had only thought about it fairly recently, I can't recall learning this at school.

M has started to like reading before sleeping, a tactic I tried when they just wouldn't settle for bed (as all kids share a room). I think he could stretch himself more but he tends to choose the easier books.

H now and again enthusiastic to read his Peter and Jane books, and has surprised them by reading some Swedish at nursery.

Biryani - today everything equalled '2', but when I said 'What's 10 take away 8?' it was 'equals 5'. She knows that when a number question is asked the answer is 'equals' another number.

Loves drawing people (including fingers and hair) and I keep coming across them at about a 2 foot level on the walls of the flat.

Hz- can now 'crawl' although not so efficiently as does not lift stomach off the ground. Particularly enjoys playing with sky remote, lamps, computer wires and computer chair- aargh.

Eating A star, but biting me a bit too much. Sleep F

I might try and catch a nap soon (or lie down with my eyes closed).

Thoughts, if rather incoherent at times..

Taking the car or walking? There’s not much competition in my book. Walking gets the blood circulating, saves petrol money, helps environment, you get to notice small things along the way e.g. a blackbird deciding how close it’ll let me come to it before flying off. It also gives me time to think. I was thinking about the irony of authorities wanting us to stick kids in school. If all the home educated children in the UK were suddenly turning up at their local schools to be ‘schooled’ could the authorities cope? This led me on to thinking that whether schools could be seen as being more ‘efficient’ as one teacher is teaching maybe 30 kids. If home educating that could be potentially 30 adults out of ‘gainful employment’. The recent snow has shown the reliance of parents on schools as child-care providers. But is it efficient? From my experience not at all, the amount of studies they do a day could be achieved in a fraction of the time at home.
Then I see H at nursery doing activities I might not have thought of/ had energy to do/ equipment/ resources to carry out. I think I’m happy with the situation at the moment, S still moans, and I still find it hard to believe that nearly all the boys his age or thereabouts are so poorly behaved that he doesn’t want to hang around with them, but it is true. Social skills being learnt? Well maybe more like sabr and putting up boredom at break time, and being hassled in class.
Note, since I initially scribbled the above, S has had quite a bad experience at school involving the perennial shower after P.E: problem. So I am not so happy actually.